There are many environments where multiple video display devices, for example televisions (TV) exist, but only one, or just a few receivers, are in place to send channel information to the TVs. Sports bars are a prime example of such an environment, but many others such examples are extant, especially when it is desired to send different channels or subchannels to different places in an environment, but to save cost, only a limited number of receivers are provided.
In the sports bar environment, for example, bartenders want to be able to control the content on each TV without having to use single or multiple TV remotes, since using a TV remote may cause adjacent TVs to also change channels. Using a remote in a sports bar thus now requires walking to each TV with a specific remote to change the channel, which may cause other nearby TVs to also change channels.
One such receiver, although there are many such receivers, which is often placed in a multiple TV environment such as a sports bar is the DirecTV® COM1000 content distribution system (designed and manufacture by TECHNICOLOR Inc., the owner of the present application and invention), which is a TV receiver system capable of tuning and transcrypting up to 24 TV channels and which tunes and demodulates a Motion Picture Entertainment Group (MPEG) standard MPEG-2 transport stream for further distribution in an environment through, for example, a QAM device or an internet protocol (IP) data distribution system, for example an IPTV system. The DirecTV® COM1000 is ideal for the multiple TV environment such as hotels, sports bars, and the like.
The DirecTV® COM1000 includes a QAM modulator card or board which receives the demodulated MPEG-2 transport stream for further distribution. The card is denoted a QAM24 modulator and it receives MPEG-2 transport packets from an Ethernet port and then QAM modulates the MPEG2 transport packets on one of twelve carrier frequencies. Each input stream results in one output QAM modulated channel (such as cable channel 50-1). However, nothing in the current content distribution systems allows individual receivers to play separate content on each TV without controlling the content with a separate remote for each TV.
It would be desirable to design a system which permits separate playing and control of content in a multiple TV environment without use of a remote control for each TV. Such needs have not heretofore been fulfilled in the art.
Moreover, currently there is no way in which a manager of such an environment, for example a Bartender in a sports bar or casino, can search for video content and see what channels are currently playing and to allow the content to change, be tracked and otherwise adjusted. It would therefore be desirable to provide a user interface to perform such tasks.
Still further, there is a need to address the issue of control of a multiple TV environment that is adaptable to a plurality of distribution configurations, including distribution using IP multicasts and addressable channel controllers. These needs as well have not heretofore been fulfilled in the art.